Scottish Bands at SXSW 2010: Twin Atlantic

Like The Jetpacks, Twin Atlantic’s dates at South by Southwest this year form part of a huge tour that will see them play all over the US and Canada. Full tour dates can be found on the Scotland on Tour page, with more on their SXSW shows below.

Dear Scotland spoke with Twin Atlantic drummer Craig Neale before the band played at CMJ in New York last year:

DS: As well as this week’s New York shows you played SXSW earlier this year, you’ve been in LA, Germany and all over the UK, is there one particular place that you really looking forward to playing?Craig Neale: In terms of places we’ve been I’d love to do SXSW again next year, it was just such an insane experience. A whole city in Texas transformed with music, incredible. And every time we go to Germany you always get treated like a king. As for places we haven’t been, my dream is still to play in Japan. I’m really into Japanese culture, and hopefully this band can be my way in to experience it!

DS: Do you feel more Scottish when you are abroad, or do you adapt well to new places? Anything you’ll miss about Scotland?Craig Neale: I feel more Scottish when I’m in other English speaking countries, it makes me really proud to come from this country. We’re a very honest nation and being in a lot of these places makes you realise how good you have it back home. Conversely, when we’re in mainland Europe and I can’t speak a word of the language, I feel pretty embarrassed. That said, we thrive on going to new places and getting to let people know about Glasgow and Scotland.

Twin Atlantic are poised for greatness. The group of fans who once held them as their little secret is growing like a virus, the word of mouth buzz about their intense live shows building a rock solid base that the band can rely on. And for Sam McTrusty, it’s a state of affairs he’s been sure of for as long as they have been playing together.

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“We’re some of those people who just totally believe in ourselves,” Sam smiles. “If people don’t like our ideas we always think it’s not that they don’t like them, they just don’t understand them. We’re convinced by that wholeheartedly and determined to just keep on going and going, and that’s why we’ve lost friends and girlfriends, fallen out with friends and family and got kicked out of flats to be in this band. So when we see other people believing in a wee story that we’ve written, that keeps pushing us.”